Court Provides Ground Rules For BitTorrent Argument

D.C. Federal Appeals Court has slated Comcast'sappeal of the FCC BitTorrent decision as the third of three cases to be heardJan. 8.

According to Comcast, each side has been given 25 minutes, actually a lot oftime as these arguments go, which could indicate particular interest in theissue.

It also means the arguments could have time to extend even beyond those times,at the judges' discretion, since there is no case after it.

The FCC found back in summer 2008 that Comcast violated its Internetopen-access guidelines by blocking BitTorrent peer-to-peer traffic.

Comcast took the FCC to court over the decision, challenging the legalunderpinnings as well as the findings that Comcast was in violation, which itsaid "were not justified by the record."

Comcast told the D.C. court in a brief that the FCC's BitTorrent decision washardly modest (as the FCC claims), was done without the requisite notice, andwas unenforceable.

Comcast was responding to the FCC'sargument in the commission's brief to the court that the FCC had the authority to take actionagainst Comcast for "covertly interfering" with BitTorrentpeer-to-peer traffic in violation of Internet openness principles--and doing soin an adjudicatory proceeding rather than a rulemaking.

Comcastargues that the FCC violated "basic rules of fair notice" becausethe conduct it targeted--reducing peer-to-peer traffic on the network--did notviolate any FCC rules.

The FCC had open access guidelines, but not enforceable rules, a distinctionthe FCC is looking to erase with its proposed network neutrality rulesexpanding and codifying those principles.

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